Discoveries and Memories
by webeta123
Summary: "How dare you remind them poor chil'ns of der past. Ye should be ashamed o' yerself." Galinda learns more about her friend than she ever thought possible. Slight Gloq. Angsty.


**A/N: Here is an idea I thought of. **

Galinda sat uncomfortably with Boq on the other side of the carriage, reading. The two had become close friends over the two years of their education. After Galinda had dumped Fiyero, realizing his love was with Elphaba not her and not wanting to have a broken heart, Boq was there to pick up the pieces, glue them together with friendship, and be a friend. So when Boq asked her to accompany him to his family reunion, "as friends" he stressed, she readily accepted, feeling the need to see more about her best guy friend's home life. When they got off at one of the comfiest homes Galinda had ever seen, a girl about six or seven came running up to Boq from the barn around the house. "BUBBY!" She yelled as she jumped into his arms. Boq swung her around, all the uncomfortableness of the carriage behind him. He plopped a kiss on the top of her head before setting her down with a huge smile on his face. "How you doin' little Ann?" Boq asked, his Munchkin accent floating into his speech.

"Good, look it!" The girl opened her mouth wide to show three of her top front teeth gone and one on the bottom gone also. She wiggled one with her tongue to show it was loose also. Boq just smiled. "Remind me to get Damien to hold you down so I can pull that out." The girl got a horrified look on her face. "NOOO!" She yelled before running towards the barn, clutching her jaw with her small fingers. Boq laughed before turning to Galinda, who looked sheepish at ruining the touching family moment. "Let's go introduce you to everybody." Boq said before taking her hand affectionately and leading her towards the barn. Galinda pretended not to notice the sparks flying from his touch, so was Boq.

He opened the heavy oak door to a cheer of, "HEY BOQ!" Boq went through as though this was normal and whispered who everybody was to Galinda as he walked around the array of upside-down barrels that served as tables. "That's Auntie Terry, with Uncle J, no one actually knows his real first name so we just call him that. Running around them is Carla and Jesse, both twins. If you hear them arguing about whose older, don't be surprised." Boq said as he pointed to a slender woman standing beside a plump man, with two little children running around them. He continued to point out who was who as he walked towards the front, where a girl with waist-length blonde hair and sparkling grey eyes sat at the edge of the stage with a tall man with dark brown hair and sea blue eyes standing above her, talking. "This is my younger sister and older brother, Christine and Damien." Boq said. "BUBBY!" Christine yelled as she wrapped Boq in a hug. Boq returned it before looking to his brother. They quickly did a mix between a handshake, hip bump, and a hug before turning to the girls. "Why does everyone call you Bubby?" Galinda asked in curiosity.

"Well, it's mostly these guys but Christine started it because she couldn't say brother and she didn't want to call me Boq so she said Bubby and it stuck. Then Damien started to and then Annie did, so I'm Bubby." Boq said as an explanation.

"Come on we've been waiting for you." Christine said as Boq climbed onto the stage. Damien jumped down and lead Galinda to one of the seats. Soon more of the family members got up and went to the stage also. The room went quiet as Christine began to talk. "Alright as tradition, I'm going to sing." Christine said. Boq quickly picked up a fiddle sitting beside one of the chairs and tuned it as other family members picked up their instruments or sat behind the drums, in Uncle J's case. "All of us are very musically-inclined." Damien said to Galinda. "Boq is the guy you go to for anything that involves strings, we actually sometimes call him Dr. Stringz. Christine's the one with the angel's voice, Uncle J's the one with the rhythm, Mee-maw's the pianist and Annie is the dancing queen." Damien said as little Annie began to stretch her legs. "Okay here we go." Everyone went quiet as the family began the intro. Soon Christine took a breath and began to sing.

_18 years have come and gone  
For bubby they flew by  
But for me they drug on and on  
We were loading up that carriage  
Both tryin' not to cry  
Bubby kept on talking  
Putting off good-bye  
Then he took my hand and said'  
Baby don't forget  
Before you get on the train  
You better stop for food  
There's a 50 in your suitcase  
In case you run short on cash  
Here's a map and here's a Bible  
If you ever lose your way  
Just one more thing before you leave  
Don't forget to remember me'  
This downtown apartment sure makes me miss home  
And those bills there on the counter  
Keep telling me I'm on my own  
And just like every Sunday I called bubby up last night  
And even when it's not,  
I tell him everything's alright  
Before we hung up I said  
'Hey bubby, don't forget to tell my baby sister I'll see her in the fall  
And tell mee-maw that I miss her  
Yeah, I should give her a call  
And make sure you tell Damien that I'm still his little girl  
Yeah, I still feel like I'm where I'm supposed to be  
Don't forget to remember me'  
Tonight I find myself kneeling by the bed to pray  
I haven't done this in a while  
So I don't know what to say but  
'Lord I feel so small sometimes in this big ol' place  
Yeah, I know there are more important things,  
But don't forget to remember me  
But don't forget to remember me_".

The song soon ended to a roar of applause from the rest of the family. Galinda clapped with them, remembering the way Boq's fingers moved across the neck of the fiddle. She had too shake herself to keep such thoughts at bay or she didn't know what might slip out of her little pink lips, or what she might do with said lips. Boq casually jumped off the stage before all the children crowded around him. He swam through the mob before collapsing in a chair beside Galinda. "So what'd ya thank?" Boq said, forgetting to mask his heavy Munchkin accent.

"It was amazing. And it's sweet she would include you in her song." Annie soon climbed onto Boq's lap and began to play with one of his dark brown, almost black, curls that framed his face. Boq seemed at peace, his eyes closed and his head leaning against the back of the chair. Soon Annie asked a question that had been bugging her six-year-old mind since she saw the pretty girl that came home with her Bubby.

"Why haven't you two kissed?" Galinda looked over to Annie as Boq's head snapped up.

"Say what?" Boq asked.

"Well, it's _obvious _that you two like each other, and it's _kind_ of obvious that you're a _thing_, and people who are in those things usually kiss, so I'm wondering why it hasn't happened." Annie explained like it was the simplest thing in the world.

"You know I was wondering the exact same thing." Christine said as she came up to the group.

"Yeah, me too." Damien asked and soon the entire family was watching them.

"Oh we are _not _together. We barely know each other." Boq flinched at the words as did Christine and Damien. Boq got up and leaned against the barrel to say, "I have to go." before half limping, half running out the barn door. You could see the anguished look mixed with his tears as he ran. The rest of the Riddle siblings soon ran with him, tears running down all their faces. Mee-maw came up to her and gave her a cold glare.

"How dare you remind them poor chil'ns of der past. Ye should be ashamed o' yerself."

"But I don't even know what I did. I was just stating the truth." Galinda said before running after the Riddle clan. She saw a light on in one of the windows in the farm-house and she decided to check there. She went through the kitchen door and up the stairs, stopping to admire the small chandelier that hung next to the staircase. It wasn't fancy, but it was still beautiful. She went on until she found the room where the light was shining from. She could hear soft cries that she could tell were Boq's and his family's. She cracked the door and found a truly sad sight. Boq was sitting in an old rocking chair, with the rest of his family around him, Christine and Damien sitting Indian-style on the floor while Annie sat in Boq's lap as he gently pushed the chair. He was softly talking, with his eyes looking beyond the yellowing ceiling, in a memory. "…the day you were born Annie, Momma wrapped you in that blanket, considering it was mid-November, and began to rock you in this very chair. I came in with Damien holding my hand and asked, 'Momma why's the baby so small?'" The family chuckled softly as did Galinda. "And she just laughed that melodious laugh and looked at me with those beautiful green eyes, you have those you know, and she said, 'Would you believe you were this small once?'"

"And Bubby's eyes went huge." Damien continued. "He couldn't think that at one point that he was that small. And he just shook his head and said, 'there's no way I was that small, I'm a big boy.'" Boq chuckled to that.

"You have her laugh Boq. Anytime I hear it I want to laugh with you." Christine said softly. Annie nodded in agreement, before hugging a lime green blanket closer to her person. They continued to talk about the past, recalling good memories, until Annie asked in her half-slumber, "Where's Momma and Daddy?"

"Momma's in heaven with Daddy, just the way she always wanted." Boq whispered as he kissed her forehead. He gently picked her up before putting her down on the bed to the left of the room. The older children continued to talk before the topic of their parents came up again. "What do you remember Boq? You were always closest to them." Damien said softly, not wanting to wake the youngest.

"Well from what I can remember, it was about harvest when I heard them arguing again. Christine you were around I want to say six, and Annie was about two, and Damien you were out in the fields with me but you were flirting with Sarah." Boq said as his eyes went misty with remembrance. "Soon, I think this is what all of us heard, was Dad saying, 'We are not together anymore. I've already gotten a divorce. We barely know each other.'" Boq's voice cracked in pain. "And then, he came out, walked up to me and said, 'Good luck son'. And with that he left. After a couple weeks we found out that the girl he had been cheating on Momma with was married and her husband killed him. Then, not a month after we got the news, I walked in the kitchen to find Momma dead on the floor, with an empty pill bottle in one hand, and an apology in a letter. She said that the pain was too much, and she knew that me and Damien could raise you and Annie right." Boq finished. Galinda hid in the shadows when Damien and Christine went out of the room and went to their own rooms, both with slightly sad faces still but still a bit brighter. Galinda slipped in just as Boq was blowing out the candle, thrusting them both into darkness. Boq went out the door, unknowingly leaving Galinda alone again. She heard Annie mutter, "Auntie Gl-…I don't want to play dress-up…" before slipping off into a talk-less slumber. Galinda just kept on walking.

She heard Boq close the door behind him down the hall. She followed him before opening the door to find Boq, lying on his bed, shirtless. His eyes were closed, but Galinda could somehow tell he wasn't asleep. "So you heard?" He suddenly asked.

"How'd you know it was me?" Galinda asked as she sat on the edge of the bed. Boq sat up and curled his legs up before setting his chin on them. Galinda discovered he was also pant less. He was only in his white boxers.

"Your scent. Also you're the only girl here with five-inch heels on." Boq said. Galinda scooted closer.

"What's my scent to you?" Galinda asked.

"Innocence, beauty, and a hint of vanilla." Boq said bluntly. They continued to talk before Galinda noticed a mark on Boq's back.

"What's this?" She gently pushed Boq to turn to see a tattoo of a eighth note. On it, was a yellow ribbon going around the notes. "Her favorite color was yellow." Boq said. Galinda traced the tattoo with her finger, finding it captivating. They continued to talk but before long they both fell into a slumber.

The next morning, Galinda was found in Boq's arms, with a content smile on her face.

**End Story. Tell Me What you think.**


End file.
